>>19990941there's no story around the IC because they decided not to strip dom of it when he got injured, for some idiotic reason. raw had a pretty weak singles midcard around that time, that's the only reason i can think of. he never should have won it back from cena.
but there is no reason that penta, jevon, theory, logan, dragon lee, etc aren't competing for this thing.
on smackdown, the US open challenge was a breath of fresh air. over the last few years, the title went from the fweakin vortex, to logan's absentee reign, to the lucha vortex, to LA knight feuding with jobbers, to being stuck in samoa. sami restarting the USOC was essential to getting ilja and melo over.
but i think it is close to overstaying its welcome. even melo said the other day that he wants a true storyline in his reign. i think he's getting that with the build to the ilja rematch but that is more subtle than probably what many would like.
